The Runestone Hierarchy
by Runebinder
Summary: The Village of Arkhaven has eluded the gaze of the Black Crest's king for three thousand years. One day, a Crest scout gets caught in a snowstorm and stumbles upon the village of Arkhaven...


**Runestone Hierarchy**

**Book I : The Land of Aesir**

**Arkhaven**

**The sun shone without respite in the blue afternoon sky, dotted with white little clouds. It seemed as if it wouldn't be raining anytime soon. Children frolicked in the river, attempting to seek refuge from the stinging heat of the sun. Men who were in charge of the wheat and barley fields toiled continuously throughout the day, sweat streaming down their faces. The people in charge of the food fields were never forced into doing such laborious and demanding work, instead, the Elders would choose only those who were willing to part with their precious time and work for the good of the village. Adolescents in leather chest plates trained hard with the knights of the village as future defenders of their home. Some of which are in hope of leaving the village to go on an adventure to explore Snowstone Peak which lay a few leagues west of Arkhaven. **

**The village of Arkhaven, home of the Lost Brethren, lies thousands of leagues away from civilization and was never big enough to be put on a map. An asylum for the homeless and sick, few stumble upon this 'Lost City', as folklore calls it. Legend tells of a man who tamed dragons, had lived right there in Arkhaven. Villagers called him the 'Dragon Man' or 'Dragon Rider' but nobody ever believed it of course, because dragons were wise and Elders spoke of dragons like gods, all powerful and would never fall to the hand of a human. The townsfolk take these legends as fairytales, ideal bedtime stories for their children. One thing however, would never be forgotten.**

**The three elemental runestones, one for each element – fire, wind and earth. They were kept in a room with three pedestals, set in a triangular shape, one on each end. A tall spire stood towering in the middle of the three stones inscribed with symbols that nobody could read, not even the Elders. The entire room was carved with scenes depicting a war, where dragons, humans and elves fought side by side against a similar and unknown enemy. The three races stood facing a symbol, swords raised and fangs bared, toward the enemy whom they despised. The emblem resembled a black shield, with a white insignia forged into it. Because of this drawing, the Elders perceived it was a warning from the Gods, that this was their sworn enemy. Since no name was given to them, the Elders named this enemy the Black Crest.**

**It was midday in the village and everybody was busy with their own businesses. The farmers, as always, worked busily in the fields without any signs of fatigue.**

**"Yaargh!" Asio lunged at his instructor with all his might, missing almost completely. The middle-aged knight instructor swung down his sword hand and hit Asio in the back as he was about to get to his feet. Asio lay sprawled in defeat in the sand.**

"**Well, seems you improved a bit." The knight said in mock complementation**

"**Yeah right, I missed you totally on that last swing." Asio snapped.**

**In spite of his best endeavors, Asio could never get the better of his instructor. The knight in his rusty chain mail offered a gloved hand to Asio to help him up. He grabbed it promptly and was tugged to his feet.**

**"Let's try this one more time, swing with instinct, not your mind. Thinking in a battle only gets you killed faster. One more thing—"The instructor stopped in mid sentence to parry a quick jab from Asio's sword, then spun around behind him and did a backhand swing to get at Asio's unguarded back. The only thing he found was Asio's sword edge at his shoulder blade. The man chuckled, then raised his hands in defeat. Asio smirked at his glorious victory and ran his free hand through his hair to intimidate his instructor.**

**"All right Asio my boy, you win this time, but as I was saying before you attacked me when I wasn't ready... I can only parry your moves because when you prepare for an attack, your left foot always turns inwards and I know that you'll be attacking," the instructor pushed the sword Asio kept pointed at him away with his gloved hand, then patted him on the shoulder, "you make a good knight, boy keep your soul here in the training arena. Remember, _ta coeur'ta _**_**épée**_**_, ta esprit coeur'ta bouclier._"**

**The knight smiled and patted Asio one more time on the shoulder and walked off, throwing the blunt sword into the training weapons bin on the way out of the training room.**

**Asio panted and sat on the sandy ground, hoping to get a reprieve before his next training session with his instructor involving spears and the usage of shields.**

**The young knight-in-training, Asio Seft, in his peers' views, was not like any of them at all. Some say he had a gift for handling weapons, but was actually just an insult on how clumsily he handled weapons around villagers. However, Asio knew that he had the talent and was willing to make full use of it.**

**Asio came from a humble family, whose father works as a blacksmith and his mother, a housewife. With a medium build, brown, sun bleached hair and a set of piercing gray eyes; he was irresistible to girls of his village. Asio constantly wondered if his talent for handling arms came from his father, because his father too, dealt with weapons before in the clan war periods. Another part of him contradicts his point of view about his skills with a sword; he thought that his talent came from the countless hours of training with his compassionate but ruthless instructor. So somehow, he has managed to procure the mastery of the sword.**

**Disaster in Arkhaven**

**Two Years Later**

**As Asio waved goodbye to his father at the blacksmith, a cold breeze swept past his face, sending a chill down his spine. Once again, his mind returned to pondering over his competence with a sword. He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and strode back to his home, enjoying the refreshing cold after months of blistering heat. A girl's voice rang in the distance, interrupting his thoughts.**

**"Asio!" the voice called, it was Charlotte, the girl who had an obvious lust for him in the past five months. Asio was a very charismatic person, but Charlotte couldn't bring herself to ask Asio out on a date.**

**"Hi, Charlotte, need anything?" Asio smiled at Charlotte with rosy cheeks after being in the cold for so long.**

**"I was wondering if... if..." Charlotte's voice trailed off as she suddenly found a great interest in the ground at her feet.**

**Asio instantly knew what Charlotte was going at and shrugged in apology.**

**"Sorry, Charlotte but I got to help my dad with some errands, maybe next time?" he smiled again, hoping to conceal the lie.**

**Charlotte jumped and looked up at Asio when she heard the words 'next time'. A big smile spread across her face and she nodded vigorously. She leant over, gave Asio a peck on the cheek, then skipped off quickly into the distance.**

**Asio rubbed his cheek where Charlotte had planted her kiss and then saw no point in doing it, so he put his hands back into his pocket and continued back to the house. During his stroll, a snowflake floated gracefully past Asio's eyes. He eyed it curiously, then looked up instinctively and saw a flurry of snowflakes dropping down from the gray sky; he hadn't noticed that the sky had gotten awfully darker since he left the house to head for the smithy.**

**Within hours, the paths outside Asio's abode were covered with layers over layers of soft, white, snow. He found no need to leave the house, so he sat by the lit fireplace and read a book. The burnt wood crackled softly in the air, giving Asio a sense of peace and solitude. The ambience was perfect. He opened a book which was titled, "**_**Un Héros De Guerre**_**" which meant ****_A Hero of War_. Just as Asio was about to turn open the hard-covered book, the warning bell of the village was rung. Asio jumped from his seat and grabbed his bow from the ivory hangar on the wall, then rushed out of the door, slamming it behind him.**

**A snowstorm had stirred over the period that Asio had stayed in the house. He covered his face with his sleeve to resist the piercing cold of the snow. He struggled ungainly against icy wind; it seemed to pierce his skin as if Shiva was scraping her icy talons against his flesh. Everything ahead of him was blurred by ice and snow, only fuzzy images of hysterical villagers rushing past him to take cover in their homes could be seen. The wind screamed violently in his ears, like sirens singing their mournful song for him.**

**After minutes that seemed like hours, Asio had struggled to the village square, where he found the three village elders assembled, discussing things urgently but calmly. The snowstorm didn't seem to affect them the least bit. As Asio got closer, he heard sections of the conversation.**

**"Runestones...where...?" one of them said**

**"...saw...room..." an Elder with graying hair said.**

**Asio understood instantly what they were conversing about and hurried toward the Runestone chamber. Once Asio arrived at the flight of stairs leading down into the chamber, he hesitated, looking at the forest ahead of him. Just as he was about to continue down into the depths of the dark chamber, he spotted something gleaming at the edge of the forest boundary. A reddish glow emitted around a black speck. Asio squinted against the snow being blown by the zephyr against his face. A few seconds passed and Asio gave up, he left the Runestone chamber entrance and hurried back to the village square.**

**He sprinted back, his muscles straining against the gushing wind toward where the Elders were discussing their current predicament. Asio shouted at the top of his voice when he felt that he could be heard from that distance.**

**"Hey, hey!" he continued towards the Elders**

**"My child, there is no time for you." One of them replied.**

**"I saw someone with a large bag leaving Arkhaven, it seemed to be glowing. The man was dressed in black... I think." He explained quickly while panting.**

**An Elder closed his eyes, taking in long, ragged breaths."The Crest... they have found us." an Elder spoke the words of dread which spelt doom for Arkhaven.**

**"We must assemble a force to capture this Crest scout, or we will perish." One said.**

**"It will take too long to muster the forces of the village, especially under the given circumstances." Another argued.**

**"Let us leave Arkhaven, we cannot remain here or we will find nothing but death in the following week." The third said.**

**"_Merde leur deius... Ils devrais pourrir aller en enfer,"_ the first cursed under his breath, "very well, we will leave Arkhaven by dawn. Get the guards to sound the alarm; we must prepare to leave at once."**

**"You're just going to leave Arkhaven to be burnt to the ground? I don't believe this, the Gods will be enraged." Asio argued.**

**"Go back to your home child; you have no say in this as much as a speck of dust. Do as you are told and no harm will come to you. Now, we must leave, please stay out of this matter." The second explained patiently.**

**"I won't let this village to be desiccated by the hands of the Black Crest. Something must be done." Asio swore an oath which would one day save Arkhaven from certain destruction.**

**Asio sped hastily back to his home, his bow still slung across his shoulder. The snow crunched audibly under the weight of his leather boots. By now, the snowstorm had given way to thunderclouds which loomed ominously in the sky. They seemed to swirl together, forming the shape of a typhoon, with an eye in the middle. The eye kept a steady gaze upon the village, like a tiger watching its prey.**

**The moment the Runestones were removed from their pedestals, the three elements of power were thrown into confusion. They would strike any area of land at any time, causing catastrophic damage. The Runestone of fire would cause fire to rain from the skies, the stone of wind would cause typhoons and unpredictable weather patterns, the stone of Earth would invoke earthquakes to erupt all over the realm of Aesir, throwing the land into utter chaos. Should these three elements unite to form the ultimate element of all, Magic would come into existence, forming maelstroms, firestorms, tidal waves and various other types of destruction.**

**Asio arrived at his doorstep sooner than he expected. He flung open the door, sending it crashing towards the wall. Asio stood panting at the doorway, cold mist being exhaled with each breath he took.**


End file.
